Any fans of Zola here? Any detractors?
― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 00:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 01:34 (twenty years ago) link
as a text on social structure i think it's great, but as a novel i was bored. though there's a whipping scene at the beginning that is ACES.
― j c (j c), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 02:18 (twenty years ago) link
I really really liked The Earth, which is positively King Learish, and it's got a laugh-out loud funny subplot about flatulence which occupies dozens of pages over the coarse (heh, intentional) of the novel. And La Bete Humaine (Human Beast) is my favorite since it's the most melodramatic and reads like a cheapo early film reel with a mustache twirling baddie rerouting traintracks (really! only it's a woman and she derails the train of a man who spurned her because he had psychopathic urges!)
Anything in the Rougon-MacQuart cycle is good, and there's really no need to read them in order. Or read more than one or two, unless you really like them... and that's not terribly hard to do.
― The Second Drummer Drowned (Atila the Honeybun), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 03:53 (twenty years ago) link
― B. Michael Payne (This Isnt That), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago) link
Reading them in sequence after reading the first one was helpful as there is some continuity - but hardly necessary - the books stand well on their own.
I found them compelling and unforgettable - but not as good in translation as in French.
I'd like to recommend "Au Bonheur Des Dames" (in english as "The Ladies Paradise") from the series as being one of my favorites.
― jefu, Sunday, 29 February 2004 19:20 (twenty years ago) link
― adam (adam), Sunday, 29 February 2004 22:53 (twenty years ago) link
― gareth (gareth), Monday, 1 March 2004 14:34 (twenty years ago) link
recently discovered this. i have but haven't read Germinal and was looking up the book that the film Human Desire was based on (bete humaine) and, hey ho, here's a set of 20 books and i do love a list.
Oxford World Classics has translated all of them recently, surprisingly the first full translation since 18xx, which was half-arsed by all accounts. penguin has 8 or so of them, much cheaper. but they are all 600+ pages. i should read the one i already have, see how it goes.
― koogs, Sunday, 22 October 2023 12:19 (ten months ago) link
my favourite writer!I attempted to blog my way through Les Rougon-Macquart a while back, here's the ones I got throughintroduction#1 – La Fortune des Rougon (1871)#2 – La Curée (1871-2)#3 – Le Ventre de Paris (1873)#4 – La Conquête de Plassans (1874)#5 – La Faute de l’abbé Mouret (1875)
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 22 October 2023 12:45 (ten months ago) link
fuck off gareth
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 22 October 2023 12:52 (ten months ago) link
i think you might have more choice of translation now
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/series/oxford-world-s-classics-12
https://www.penguin.co.uk/search-results?tab=books&q=Emile-Zola&x9=author&q9=Emile-Zola 7 here
― koogs, Sunday, 22 October 2023 16:03 (ten months ago) link
Haven't read his books, but was recently impressed by his heroic part in the Dreyfus Affair, which may have cost him his life---see epic wiki article on the Affair.
― dow, Monday, 23 October 2023 00:12 (ten months ago) link